


of god and men

by guiltylights



Series: and around the sun, we stand [3]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, OH time-wise though this is definitely set, Post-Time Skip, and feelings about Luffy as captain, however there is a mention of Water-7, more so than the other two, there are however of course still feelings about Luffy and Usopp and crew mates, there is also mentions of the Boin Archipelago Usopp ends up on post pre-timeskip Sabaody, this is not set in any determinate location, this is very much a character study fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 12:08:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16429115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guiltylights/pseuds/guiltylights
Summary: The towering power of his captain had made him seem like, in Usopp’s eyes, a shining god among men, the tenacity and grit of his struggles against the impossible awarding him the strength and glory of the heroes of empires. Luffy shatters the limits of the sky. He was everything Usopp wanted to be.Usopp is nothing like Luffy.





	of god and men

**Author's Note:**

> [time started: 26th Oct 18, 1:35pm;– ]
> 
> Usopp is a very important character to me also people who think he doesn’t deserve to be part of the Straw-Hat crew can eat my whole ass 
> 
> (Okay fine I would like to hear why because hearing out the other party is a good practice but still Usopp is SO IMPORTANT OKAY) 
> 
> I hesitated to file this under the aatsws series, at first, because the focus of this fic is very much on Usopp and his character study… but at the same time I find this discussion inextricably linked to Luffy as a captain, so here ya go
> 
> As you read the fic series this is a part of, you guys should play the game “how many times will this writer mention luffy and his shoulders in imagery?”

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Usopp can keep up for longer with the rest of the crew, nowadays.

Oh, don’t get him wrong – he’s still far behind the monster trio by a long shot, what with their smartass of a cook who can set his legs on fire and walk on air at will, their brooding directionally-hopeless swordsman who can use not just one, not just two, but _three_ swords to cut through flesh and blood and stone and then some, and _especially_ what with their loud-mouthed ridiculous insane rubber man of a captain, who Usopp has seen punch through walls and wills to bear miracles on his back and turn wishes into reality in ways that others only dare dream about, but Usopp _keeps up,_ now. His strides are longer. He runs faster. He doesn’t get out of breath as easily as before, now, and so he generally can still keep the other three in his line of sight when they run off in some other godforsaken direction in search of the next dangerous adventure that would normally have other people cowering in darkened corners.

(So, you know, typical Straw-Hat pirate crew things.)

The knowledge that he’s improved makes Usopp keep his back a little straighter, stand a little taller, raise his head a little higher. It’s a sensation he’s not nearly used to, this kind of confidence and belief. It’s a little strange. Back on Fishman Island, when his opponent had sneered at him and called him a useless burden to the crew, Usopp had stood there for a moment and had almost waited, waited for the shame and self-consciousness to crash into and overwhelm him, the way it would’ve done two years ago when he had been a gangly awkward teenager who hadn’t known how to do anything else but lie. He’s still a gangly awkward teenager who lies – the stories of Great Captain Usopp shouldn’t be kept to oneself, after all – but, well, it’s different now. The shame hadn’t come. Usopp supposes that’s testament to how he’s grown – he didn’t spend two years on a wilderness island fighting off rabid plants for nothing, after all – but still, he wonders.

Oh, don’t get him wrong – Usopp knows that he’s still far behind the monster trio by a long shot, would probably be far behind the monster trio for the most, if not the rest, of his life by a long shot, but it just so happens that it doesn’t matter as much anymore. Usopp knows it did, two years ago, back when his cowardice had been a thing of self-hatred, his own lack of physical strength a kind of weakness. The towering power of his captain had made him seem like, in Usopp’s eyes, a shining god among men, the tenacity and grit of his struggles against the impossible awarding him the strength and glory of the heroes of empires. Luffy shatters the limits of the sky. He was everything Usopp wanted to be.

The fact, however, is that he isn’t. Usopp is nothing like Luffy. He’d first begun to understand this, while watching Luffy emerge batter-bruised from the crushed rubble of Arlong Park, the debris of years of hurt falling off like dust from his shoulder blades. His figure a source of disbelief, yet at the same time a monolith to faith. He had certainly felt it, crumpled and broken on the ground of the canal city that had been Water-7, back when Franky had been nothing more but shadow and monstrosity and loud barbaric enemy, and he had felt it even more acutely afterwards, devastated and beaten down onto the wet-sharp rocks of the Rocky Cape in front of a near-collapsing Merry, defeat and insecurity bitter and screaming on his tongue. _You can keep the ship_ , Luffy had said, and he had been the cruelest in his kindness; _you can keep the ship, because we’ll find a new one, and sail the seas without you._ The gap between them had stretched innumerably long, then. It hadn’t been about abandonment. It hadn’t been about selfishness. But Usopp had understood that only much, much later.

And it took him only much later on, too, isolated and forcibly separated from everybody else amidst florid snapping greens, to finally understand: his captain is no god. Seeing Luffy’s grief stamped across newspaper black-and-white, he himself helpless and unable to be at Luffy’s side when Luffy needed it the most, spoke of something painfully human and unbearably frail. His captain is not infallible; Usopp had understood then. But Luffy is the man who is going to become Pirate King. And Usopp had realised, with a sudden kind of sharp-eyed clarity, that he wanted to be one of the people who gets him there. Usopp is nothing like Luffy; but in truth he doesn’t have to be.

Oh, don’t get him wrong – it’s not that Usopp thinks he won’t shatter the limits of the sky. He’s going to. He’ll stumble and falter and doubt himself every step of the way, but there’s no doubt he’s going to. He’s going to become the greatest warrior of the sea, be a giant among men. He’ll turn into the best sniper, for the future Pirate King. He’s going to become everything he wants himself to be.

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**Author's Note:**

> Trying to write in Usopp’s perspective results in very interesting run-on sentences. Maybe it’s my brain attempting to embody Usopp’s long-winded propensity to tell stories. Also I wanted to touch on Usopp’s connection with the giants in the One Piece universe and the symbolism that carries but I didn’t know how to work it in. 
> 
> LISTEN PEOPLE SAY USOPP IS VERY WEAK BUT HE’S IN REALITY JUST VERY HUMAN AND I LOVE THAT VERY MUCH ABOUT HIM, OKAY. I LOVE LUFFY AND ZORO AND SANJI THE THREE STUPIDLY STRONG DUMBASSES BUT I LOVE USOPP TOO. 
> 
> Now that I’ve written this for Usopp I kinda want to go back and tweak Sanji’s and Zoro’s, but I shall desist…
> 
> If you liked the fic, please leave kudos or comments! Comments make my day, tbh. I also have a [tumblr](http://guilty-lights.tumblr.com/), if you wanna stop by! 
> 
> [time ended: 28th Oct 18, 2:28am;– ]


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